Swap your broken pod for one that's mod

July 24, 2006|By MCT

Since the iPod debuted in 2001, Gregg Radell has used five of the music and video players. He lost one, another broke, a third ran out of storage space, and he decided to replace the fourth. Each time, he bought a newer model.

Sensing there was a market in refurbishing rather than replacing the devices, the Miami businessman started podswap.com 18 months ago.

The company allows customers to credit the value of used iPods--even if they're broken--toward new or repaired ones. Customers also can trade in their iPods for its cash value. Podswap.com already has handled 5,000 iPods, Radell said.

Radell said there is such a high demand, he limits his advertising on Google. "We can get 1,500 inquiries over the weekend," he said.

In the booming online iPod repair business, podswap.com is a small player. At least 12 firms operate in the market. One, ipodmods.com, fixes roughly 24,000 iPods a year. Another, ipodresq.com, repairs 250 a day, albeit on its "biggest days," according to its owner, in a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Olathe, Kan.

Brandon Jones, owner of brokenipods.com in Orem, Utah, is only 21, yet a year and a half after starting his business, he fixes between 200 and 400 iPods a month. Only now is he drawing up a business plan. He said the average price of a repair is $100.

Firms that previously fixed other computer parts also have entered the industry, and iPod repairs now make up the majority of their business.

Analysts and repair-shop managers said the industry is growing because iPods are easy to break and tough to repair. It helps that Apple, iPod's maker, is reluctant to repair broken players, they say.